The present invention relates to a liquid supply system and, more particularly, to a ripple regulator for removing ripples generated by a pump included in the liquid supply system.
The present invention is to provide an ink liquid supply system in an ink jet system printer for ensuring a constant flow rate of the ink liquid to be supplied to a nozzle.
Generally, when a piston activated pump is employed in a liquid supply system, ripples are generated in the liquid. The thus generated ripples influence on the constant flow rate supply. Especially in an ink jet system printer of the charge amplitude controlling type, the constant flow rate supply is very important to achieve a correct and clean printing.
Therefore, a ripple regulator is usually disposed in the liquid supply system. However, the conventional ripple regulator is not suited for both minimizing the ripple pressure and shortening the response time.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a novel ripple regulator for use in a liquid supply system.
Another object of the present invention is to minimize the ripple pressure and to shorten the response time of a ripple regulator in a liquid supply system employing a piston activated pump.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, a solenoid mechanism is connected to a bellowphragm of a ripple regulator. The solenoid mechanism is driven in synchronization with the activation of a liquid supply pump so that the ripples generated by the liquid supply pump are absorbed by the volume variation of a pressure chamber included in the ripple regulator.